Budget: Extreme Cliff Notes

According to the governor, all you really need to know about the budget can be contained on a credit card-sized cheat-sheet, which was handed out this morning.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he’s going to work to get these cards into the hands of as many people as possible in an effort to enlist them to support his budget proposal:

“This is a debate which I plan to bring to the people of the state of New York,” Spitzer said. “I’m going to work passionately and aggressively to make sure that the public understands what we are doing here. I’m going to say to every voter, every taxpayer: This is your future.”

Later he said:

“We are going to be omnipresent. We are going to be aggressive in marketing the principles that underlie this budget to voters and taxpayers across the state, and they will understand that we are at a juncture.”

This raises a question: What, in Spitzer’s opinion, is the Legislature’s role in all this? By law, as the saying goes, “the governor proposes and the Legislature disposes.” ButÂ Spitzer seemed to leave very little room for compromise when he laid out his executive budget and pledged to rally the public behind him.

Spitzer insisted “there is always room to negotiate, and that’s what we look forward to doing.” But almost in the same breath, he made it pretty clear he doesn’t intend to move far. He mentioned his veto power, and intimated he won’t be afraid to use it.

“I was elected with a mandate to change the direction of Albany,” Spitzer said. “I have two pens, one with which to sign laws, and one with which to veto…I will not become, under any circumstances, one more in the voices of the status quo paradigm that is destroying our economic future…I will be steadfast, and I will not move from those principles.”